Jaclyn Luft and Lauren Merkel have at least two things in common: they’re both studying for their MBA at McGill University and they both come to the program from non-traditional undergraduate degrees.

“I was worried coming into the program,” says McGill MBA student Lauren Merkel. “But it’s so diverse, and all my fears were put to rest when I started the program.”

By:DREW GOUGHSPECIAL TO THE STAR, Published on Thu Sep 06 2012

Jaclyn Luft and Lauren Merkel have at least two things in common: they’re both studying for their MBA at McGill University and they both come to the program from non-traditional undergraduate degrees.

Luft, who’s from Montreal, studied psychology and political science at Saint Francis Xavier in Antigonish; Merkel grew up in Plattsburg, N.Y., and graduated from the University of Richmond, Va., with a degree in journalism.

Their paths to their MBAs didn’t follow the usual engineering/computer science/business route. But the MBA program at McGill attracts students from all backgrounds — which explains, in part, why it routinely has more women students than any other MBA program in the country.

Across Canada, enrolment rates for women in MBA programs have stagnated in the past decade, according to a study by Catalyst published in July. Women earned 34.5 per cent of MBAs in 2010-2011 — only marginally higher than the 34.1 per cent in 2002-2003. In the United States, women earned 36.8 per cent of MBAs in 2010-2011, and numbers have steadily increased over the same period.

But at McGill in 2007-2008, more than 50 per cent of the students in its MBA program were women. On average, that number is closer to 35 or 36 per cent — still high for a Canadian program.

Luft and Merkel say that, right away, they felt at home in the program.

“I hope and I think that these schools accept students based on credentials and interest and background,” says Luft. “At McGill, I don’t feel like there’s a boys club at all. It’s a professionals’ club. We’re all coming from different backgrounds and [we are] there to network and learn and grow.”

Merkel agrees. She says she was hesitant to study an MBA. “I was worried coming into the program,” she says. “And I worried that it was going to be a bunch of suits and Wall Street types. But it’s so diverse, and all my fears were put to rest when I started the program.”

The diversity may go a ways in explaining why McGill tends to have more women students than other MBA programs, according to Don Melville, the director of McGill’s MBA and master’s programs. MBA programs draw heavily from engineering and computer science programs — both of which are dominated by male students, Melville says. Traditionally women-dominated fields like education and literature may not be viewed as relevant to traditional business schools. But McGill is different.

“McGill draws a lot of students from everywhere,” he says. “We always bring in engineers and people with a background in business, but we also bring in actors and musicians, doctors and physiotherapists — so that opens up the pool to a lot of different backgrounds.”

Melville suggests that by looking around the world — south of the border and then overseas — he can see the trend developing in MBA programs. More women are writing the GMAT (graduate management admission test) than ever before (as many as 64 per cent in China), and professional networks for women with MBAs, like the Forté Foundation and the Women’s MBA Network, have developed in the United States and are moving to Canada.

The Forté Foundation’s executive director Elissa Ellis-Sangster says the way that MBA programs have communicated the value of an MBA to different audiences has led to an increase in participation from women in the United States. She says that a culture change is underway, and that organizations like hers have contributed by trying to help women understand, early in an undergraduate degree, the way to management and the value of having women in top management roles.

“There are a lot of good management qualities that women bring to the table, generally, that are important for leadership to have,” she says.

According to a 2011 report by Zenger Folkman, which was featured in the Harvard Business Review, women managers outperformed men in 12 of 16 “leadership competencies,” including taking initiative, practising self-development, displaying a high level of integrity and honesty and inspiring and motivating others.

Ellis-Sangster hopes that, by sharing the success of women in management with young women early in their academic careers, groups like Forté can show women the way to those senior management positions. “Laying out that path is really important, and it’s really important for young women to see where the road can lead,” she says.